What is a Cage Code?

What is a Cage Code?

Hang around parts suppliers for federal contracts long enough, and you’ll eventually hear about CAGE codes. You might hear someone ask where to find the CAGE code for a particular wiring harness, or you might overhear someone new to government procurement talk about needing to get their own CAGE code. What is a CAGE code, though, and how does someone find it if they need to get in touch with a particular supplier?

What’s a CAGE Code, Anyways?

CAGE stands for Commercial And Government Entity, and the CAGE code is a unique five-digit identifier given to suppliers for various government or defense agencies, as well as the government agencies themselves and various other organizations. These codes are used worldwide to provide a standardized procedure to identify a particular facility in a specific location.

Before CAGE codes were implemented, the United States used an FSCM, or Federal Supply Code for Manufacturers. This was also the NSCM, or National Supply Code for Manufacturers. Prior to the 1980s, this identifier was usually labeled simply as the Code Ident No, or Code Identification Number.

The United States government uses CAGE codes for its suppliers, as does NATO under the NATO Codification System (NCS). NATO sometimes calls these NCAGE Codes. In the US, any organization that wants to be a supplier to the Department of Defense is issued a CAGE code by the Defense Logistics Information Service, or DLIS, the agency that oversees procurement for government contracts and services within the United States.

The name, address, phone numbers, and other important contact information for each entity is cataloged in handbooks for easy reference, so a government procurer can look up the contact information for a parts manufacturer when needed. This is a standardized procedure overseen by a National Codification Bureau, or NCB, of every NATO or NATO-sponsored nation. National Stock Numbers are issued under manufacture cage codes. 

Why Are CAGE Codes Important?

Within one particular aircraft, there are hundreds of thousands, if not more, parts that occasionally need to be replaced. These parts are manufactured by various organizations and corporations, and a standardized method of identifying a particular manufacturer is necessary. Additionally, sometimes a manufacturer has various locations, and a means of identifying which specific location of a particular manufacturer a part is manufactured at is helpful.

With CAGE codes, every specific location of a manufacturer or other supply chain vendor can be easily identified. These codes help identify the country (because every country has a different sequence number, or the beginning and terminating digits in the CAGE Code), as well as the particular manufacturer of a part. If the manufacturer has multiple facilities in different locations, the CAGE Codes differentiate between those locations, allowing for quick and easy access to purchasing information for important parts and supplies.

What is a Cage Code?

How Can I Get a CAGE Code?

Within the United States, CAGE Codes are administered by the Defense Logistics Information Service, or DLIS, the NCB for the United States. If you register for the System for Award Management (SAM) system and do not already have a CAGE Code, the DLIS will assign one to you. There is no subscription charge for this code or for the maintenance of the CAGE Codes.

The SAM sends vendor data to the CAGE department for the assignment of a new CAGE Code or maintenance of an existing one, and the record is then screened for failures. Once screening is successful, the record is processed automatically and a new CAGE Code is assigned or an existing CAGE Code is renewed. Once this is done, SAM sends a notification to the vendor letting them know that they are now active and eligible for contracts and/or grants.

How Do I Find a CAGE Code?

If you want to locate a particular CAGE code for a particular manufacturer, you have several options. You can try to get your hands on the H4 and H8 handbooks maintained by the DLIS, but this can sometimes be cumbersome and difficult to procure.

I’ve found an even better way, though. I found a web site that maintains a list of all of the CAGE Codes in existence, and allows you to look up a particular CAGE Code to find out the company information for that CAGE Code, or enter a company name and search for its CAGE Code. For example, if I want to find a part that I know is made by Boeing, I can search for “Boeing” on the CAGE Code lookup page and get a listing of all of the CAGE Codes held by Boeing Aerospace. Very handy!

Perhaps I know the part I need, and want to find the CAGE Code for that part’s manufacturer. This website provides that information, too, in their parts catalog. Once I locate the appropriate part number, I just have to search for that part number and the web page will tell me the CAGE Code for the manufacturer of that particular part. Then, I can look up who the manufacturer is using their CAGE Lookup tool.

Summary

CAGE Codes are essential for national government contract procurement, because they help identify manufacturing locations and supply vendors. Having the means to search for CAGE Codes quickly and easily is important for any supply chain manager or technician, so the lookup tools at www.buyaircraftparts.com are extremely useful to the industry. The fact that you can locate virtually every part within the National Stock Number (NSN) catalog is also helpful, and the services provided at this website lend credibility to the services offered by Buy Aircraft Parts Team.